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Barcode scanning SDK to work with Google Glasses so shoppers can look and scan

Could 2014 see us all scanning barcodes and assessing and buying things with our Google Glasses? Software developer Scandit seems to think so, having made its blurry barcode scanning software SDK available to Glass developers.

Designed to enable powerful applications for both the consumer and business markets, the new Scandit release will be compatible with Google’s new Glass Development Kit, and Scandit is already working closely with application developers to match its wide range of features and functionality to the specific requirements of Glass.

“We’re enhancing our software to support Glass-based barcode scanning so that businesses can fully exploit the potential that wearable smart glasses can bring to the enterprise,” said Samuel Mueller, CEO at Scandit. “We predict that in the enterprise, Glass and similar wearable devices will enable ‘hands free’ inventory management, procurement and asset tracking allowing an employee to look at a barcode on a carton, or a pallet, say ‘scan’ and retrieve associated data, or capture data for recording inventory. ”

In its predictions for wearable ‘smartglasses’, Gartner pointed out that the ‘hands free’ element of the technology would be a major factor in its growth, particularly in industries with employees working off-site, such as field service, healthcare and manufacturing. Whilst less than 1% of companies are using ‘smartglasses’ currently, Gartner predicts that in five years, 10% of organisations with field service workers will have taken up the technology.

“Two of the fastest growing enterprise sectors for Scandit are manufacturing and logistics,” continued Samuel Mueller. “Both of these are heavily dependent on barcode scanning and we are excited by Gartner’s predictions, which match our own expectations and will inform the way that our technology is developed. We also see massive opportunities in other industries, such as retail, automotive, entertainment and the public sector, and we believe that the commercial arrival of wearable computers will herald an entirely new era of innovation and development, which should ultimately result in scanning and image recognition capability being embedded into a whole range of other devices, such as contact lenses.”

Scandit has a customer base of 10,000 organisations in over 80 countries including brands such as CapitalOne, Saks 5th Avenue, Shopkick, Nasa, Yusen Logistics in the US and Bayer and Coop in Europe. It has built its business on the software-based delivery of barcode scanning and data capture capabilities for smartphone, tablet and wearable devices. The Scandit Barcode Scanner SDK enables mobile devices to scan barcodes quickly, effortlessly and accurately from any angle, even in not-ideal conditions, and supports a variety of platforms and barcode types.

For those not in the know. Scandit works closely with developers and system integrators and focusses on enabling and delivering high-quality identification and data capture applications for the retail, manufacturing and logistics industries.

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